The Modern Scholar: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic: A History of the Church in the Middle Ages

Renowned professor Thomas F. Madden turns his scholarly eye on the intrigue and politics swirling about the Medieval Church. Professor Madden explores the compelling events that shaped the culture and forever altered history, from the Monophysite Controversy to reform movements to the Inquisition, Black Death, and Great Schism.

The Modern Scholar: From Jesus to Christianity: A History of the Early Church

In the first century of its existence, Christianity was both welcomed and vilified throughout the Roman Empire. Many of Christianity's original adherents were martyred. Christians themselves practiced their religion with great diversity, linked as much to local influences as theology. Political intrigue, theological beliefs, and simple misunderstandings created a need for dialogue between the many practitioners of the growing faith.

The Modern Scholar: The Catholic Church in the Modern Age

Professor Thomas F. Madden leads these compelling lectures, focusing on a Church both adapting to a world in flux and striving to exert its influence and power. Throughout modernity, the Church responded to and weathered a host of major world events: the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, colonization of the New World, and of course the World Wars. As the face of the Church, the popes affected Catholicism in ways that can only be truly understood from a careful examination of the past.

The Modern Scholar: Upon This Rock: A History of the Papacy from Peter to John Paul II

In this compelling series of lectures, widely esteemed author and professor Thomas F. Madden illustrates how the papacy, the world's oldest institution, gave birth to the West. Since Jesus Christ instructed the foremost of his Apostles, Peter, that he would be the rock upon which Christ would build his church, the papacy has survived the rise and fall of empires while continuing to assert an undeniable influence on world events.

The Modern Scholar: Heaven or Heresy: A History of the Inquisition

With a scholarly eye and infectious enthusiasm, widely published author and noted expert on pre-modern European history Thomas Madden imparts an understanding of the Spanish and Roman Inquisitions while dispelling popular myths associated with the subject.

Bearing False Witness: Debunking Centuries of Anti-Catholic History

As we all know, and as many of our well-established textbooks have argued for decades, the Inquisition was one of the most frightening and bloody chapters in Western history, Pope Pius XII was anti-Semitic and rightfully called "Hitler's Pope", the Dark Ages were a stunting of the progress of knowledge to be redeemed only by the secular spirit of the Enlightenment, and the religious Crusades were an early example of the rapacious Western thirst for riches and power. But what if these long-held beliefs were all wrong?

The Modern Scholar: God Wills It!: Understanding the Crusades

The story of the many crusades are filled with an unremitting passion to keep or return the home of Christianity to Christians. It is also filled with death, destruction, disorder, greed, avarice, and self-interest on all sides. Much of what occurred during the Crusades has come down to us today in the form of continued suspicion among religious ideologies - not only between Christians and Muslims, but also internally among Christian sects and, to some degree, among Muslim sects.

Books That Matter: The City of God

Augustine of Hippo's masterpiece The City of God is one of the greatest books ever written, yet its size - nearly 1,000 pages - too often intimidates even serious readers. Composed in the years after the sack of Rome in the fifth century, it ushers you on an astounding historical and theological journey through the final years of the ancient world. What made this book so powerful? What mysteries lie within it? What relevance does the 1,600-year-old text have for our world today?

The Modern Scholar: The Medieval World I: Kingdoms, Empires, and War

This all-encompassing investigation of a highly influential time period includes the major events of the era and informative discussion of empire, papacy, the Crusades, and the fall of Constantinople. During the course of these lectures, Professor Madden also addresses the rise of Islam, reform movements, and schisms in the church. In so doing, Professor Madden underscores the significance and grand scale of an age that continues to hold an undeniable fascination for people today.

The Modern Scholar: Faith and Reason: The Philosophy of Religion

Through the ages, mankind has pursued questions of faith in something beyond the world of ordinary experience. Is there a God? How can we explain the presence of evil? Do humans, or human souls, live on after death? Is there a hell? The following lectures examine these eternal questions and present the most compelling arguments for and against God's existence, the seeming conflicts between religion and science, and the different truth-claims of the world's most popular religions.

The New Testament

Whether taken as a book of faith or a cultural artifact, the New Testament is among the most significant writings the world has ever known, its web of meaning relied upon by virtually every major writer in the last 2,000 years. Yet the New Testament is not only one of Western civilization’s most believed books, but also one of its most widely disputed, often maligned, and least clearly understood, with a vast number of people unaware of how it was written and transmitted.

The Modern Scholar: The Medieval World, Part II: Society, Economy, and Culture

An award-winning, widely recognized expert on pre-modern history, Professor Thomas F. Madden concludes this two-part series on the medieval world. In this course, we will see the error of the commonly held assumption that the "Dark Ages" was a time of superstition, ignorance, and violence. Rather than a time of darkness, the Middle Ages saw extraordinary innovation, invention, and cultural vitality.

When the Church Was Young: Voices of the Early Fathers

Marcellino D'Ambrosio dusts off what might have been just dry theology to bring you the exciting stories of great heroes such as Ambrose, Augustine, Basil, Athanasius, John Chrysostom, and Jerome. These brilliant, embattled, and sometimes eccentric men defined the biblical canon, hammered out the Creed, and gave us our understanding of sacraments and salvation. It is they who preserved the rich legacy of the early Church for us.

The Modern Scholar: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

In this informative and lively series of lectures, renowned history professor Thomas F. Madden serves as the ultimate guide through the fall of ancient Rome. Professor Madden correlates the principles of Roman conduct that would forever change the world. Rome was an empire unlike the world had ever seen, and one that will likely never be duplicated. Peopled with personages of great distinction and even greater ambition, the Roman Empire contributed many of history's proudest advancements.

The Modern Scholar: Ethics: A History of Moral Thought

This course addresses some of the eternal questions that man has grappled with since the beginning of time. What is good? What is bad? Why is justice important? Why is it better to be good and just than it is to be bad and unjust? Most human beings have the faculty to discern between right and wrong, good and bad behavior, and to make judgments over what is just and what is unjust. But why are ethics important to us?

The Modern Scholar: The Lost Warriors of God: The True History of the Knights Templar

Professor Thomas F. Madden is a widely published author and the director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Saint Louis University. In The Lost Warriors of God, Madden examines one of the most fascinating organizations in world history: the Knights Templar, whose members gave up home, family, and worldly possessions to defend the Holy Land and the Christian pilgrims who journeyed there.

The Modern Scholar: Empire of Gold: A History of the Byzantine Empire

In this course, Thomas F. Madden offers a history of the culture that developed out of the ancient Roman Empire throughout the Middle Ages. The story begins at the end of the Roman Empire in the third century AD and continues over the next 1000 years. Professor Madden leads a discussion covering the aftermath and influence of this extraordinary empire. Europeans now saw a world in which nothing stood between them as the last remnant of free Christendom and the ever-growing powers of Islam.

The Modern Scholar: The Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas

An enthusiastic admirer of the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, professor and philosopher Peter Kreeft details the rational thought and precise literary talent that established Aquinas as the foremost thinker of his time - and as the most important philosopher for the almost 200 years between Aristotle and Descartes.

1066: The Year That Changed Everything

With this exciting and historically rich six-lecture course, experience for yourself the drama of this dynamic year in medieval history, centered on the landmark Norman Conquest. Taking you from the shores of Scandinavia and France to the battlefields of the English countryside, these lectures will plunge you into a world of fierce Viking warriors, powerful noble families, politically charged marriages, tense succession crises, epic military invasions, and much more.

The New Concise History of the Crusades: Critical Issues in World and International History

How have the crusades contributed to Islamist rage and terrorism today? Were the crusades the Christian equivalent of modern jihad? In this sweeping yet crisp history, Thomas F. Madden offers a brilliant and compelling narrative of the crusades and their contemporary relevance.

The Modern Scholar: Medieval Mysteries: The History Behind the Myths of the Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is not only a period of Romance, but of legends, tales, and mysteries. In this course, Professor Thomas F. Madden guides listeners through the most famous and enduring narratives of medieval Europe. Beginning with King Arthur, Professor Madden peels back layers of exaggeration and fiction to lay bare the historical basis for the mythical king.

Saint Thomas Aquinas

Dubbed the "Dumb Ox" by his classmates for his shyness, Saint Thomas Aquinas proved to be possessed of the rarest brilliance, justifying the faith of his teacher, Albertus Magnus, and sparking a revolution in Christian thought. Chesterton's unsurpassed examination of Aquinas' thinking makes his philosophy accessible to listeners of any generation.

The Modern Scholar: Hebrews, Greeks and Romans: Foundations of Western Civilization

Our purpose in this course will be to examine the foundations of Western civilization in antiquity. We will look at the culture of the ancient Hebrews, of the ancient Greeks, and of the Romans, and we will likewise look at how these cultures interacted with each other, sometimes happily, sometimes not. In the process, we will focus on how the questions they addressed and the answers they found live among us and continue to shape our lives to this very day.

The Italians before Italy: Conflict and Competition in the Mediterranean

Take a riveting tour of the Italian peninsula, from the glittering canals of Venice to the lavish papal apartments and ancient ruins of Rome. In these 24 lectures, Professor Bartlett traces the development of the Italian city-states of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, showing how the modern nation of Italy was forged out of the rivalries, allegiances, and traditions of a vibrant and diverse people.

Publisher's Summary

Esteemed history professor Thomas F. Madden explores the reformations that swept across Christendom in the 16th and 17th centuries. The impact of these reforms affected government, popes, and kings as well as commoners, for at this time the Church was an omnipresent part of European identity-and the import of Church reforms on every level of life at this time simply cannot be underestimated. Involved in this fascinating era are such notable personages as King Henry VIII, Martin Luther, and John Calvin. Through every aspect of this remarkable process of reformation, Professor Madden captures the essence of the era-and imparts a true, studied understanding of just what this time period meant to the course of human events.

I an something of a fan of Professor Maddens'lectures, I like the way he present complicated historical situation and narratives in short succinct series of lectures. This one certainly did not dissappoint. This lecture certainly did change my view on the Catholic church. A great buy for highschool seniors and undergrad students.

I've been studying the Reformation quite intensively, especially in England. Many people who write about religious subjects don't disclose their own religious commitment, though the most honest ones do. I always listen for indications of bias. I've never heard it so blatant as in chapter 10 of this work though I had wondered before in earlier chapters, hearing certain word choices, and tones of voice.

In Chapter 10 Madden flatly says:

1) that Catherine of Aragon's marriage to Arthur (Henry VIII's brother) was unconsumated because she was too young (born in 1485, betrothed at age 3, married in 1501 at age 15 or 16).

2) that Henry's motive for dissolution of the monasteries was solely greed for their money and that monks and nuns were lined up and forced to marry.

3) that Henry's biblical ground for believing his marriage to Catherine was unlawful, Leviticus 20:21. applies only to cases of divorce, not widowhood.

I have never before come across any author, of any background, saying or even hinting these things. Most acknowledge that Henry and Catherine told different stories about the consummation of her first marriage. Most acknowledge the financial motive in the dissolution, but also recognize the Protestant influence of Anne Bolyn and Thomas Cromwell. The story of monks and nuns being lined up for forced marriage seems unbelievable on its face and I've never heard of it before. As for the Bible, Madden cites Deuteronomy 25:5-6 though it's actually stronger than what he says; it commands a man to marry the childless widow of his dead brother, specifically to provide an heir for the dead. But I've never heard of anyone else saying that Leviticus 20:21 applies only to divorce, which is what he claims.

Throughout the work, Madden is trying to cover a lot of ground in a brief time, and is often rather sloppy in his summaries. But in this chapter he is either ignorant of the field or deliberately engaged in special pleading for the Roman Catholic supporters of Catherine of Aragon and Mary Tudor. Most historians give a taste of all points of view; here Madden does not even acknowledge other possible ideas.

p.s. Another clear case of bias is that he blames the St Bartholomew's day massacre soley on Catherine de'Medici, not even acknowledging other possible culprits, of whom there were several. He makes no mention of Pope Gregory's public approval of the massacre.

My previous knowledge of these reformations centered around the theological aspects involved. However, after listening to Dr Madden's lectures it is obvious that trying to understand the theological concerns without a proper understanding of the history involved, particularly in the first reformation, is a mistake.

Most Protestants and Catholics today have a very limited knowledge of the history of the the Catholic Church. After listening to this class, I am convinced most of my more scholarly Protestant friends and I have very little knowledge of the history surrounding key events and figures on both sides of the conflict. It's safe to say I know of no one who knows or cares of the reformation within the Catholic Church.

Yet, regardless of whether one believes in God or not, these events in the 16th to 17th centuries dramatically effect how we live today. This class leads me to look at my own faith in a different light altogether.

Delivered in a halting way, which is very bothersome and makes the listener wonder if the lecturer really doesn't know his stuff, is unorganized and unprepared or is just not good at lecturing! Additionally, he gets Luther's theology glaringly wrong in some key places.

Compare this The Modern Scholar lecture with Brad Gregory's The Great Courses lectures on the Reformation to see a well delivered flowing (non-halting) lecture with live audience, and a content that tries to be sympathetic to all sides and portray each one's theology faithfully.